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Here's a pretty smoke ring that takes less than 4 ounces of a yummy merino-tencel blend in your favorite hand-painted colorway. It's soft and warm, and can be worn as a hood, or as a cowl scarf. It's slightly flared at the bottom, but there's no pattern shaping. Here's how the flare is achieved: First, as you might find in your own handspinning if you're not checking your wraps-per-inch religiously ("Who, me?"), this yarn was spun a little thicker at the beginning of the skein that at the end! In fact, this pattern was developed expressly to take advantage of this otherwise-oops phenomenon. The yarn starts out at about DK weight; by the end of the skein, it's more like light fingering. Second, to accommodate the changing yarn grist and accentuate the gauge change, the pattern calls for changing to successively smaller needles as the work progresses from bottom to top. I did this using my new Denise Interchangeable™ Knitting Needles kit. As the leaflet inside the kit shows, the Denise needles don't exactly match US sizes, or the usual metric sizes. But the difference at these gauges is negligible, so don't worry about which type of needle you use.
Smoke Ring
Lace cowl made with yarn that varies in grist and using increasing needle sizes to achieve a slight flare at the bottom without knitted-in shaping. 
Using long-tail cast-on and size US8 (5mm) or Denise size 8 (4.9mm) needles, CO 144. Join, being careful not to twist stitches.
Round 1: Place a marker for the beginning of the round. K. Round 2: P. Round 3: K. Round 4: *P4, p3tog, p5*. 
Note that on pattern rounds 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 and 23, the first stitch of the round is slipped to the end of the round, and the round commences with the next stitch. This is because the round ends with a double decrease; one of the stitches participating in the double decrease is the one slipped. (In fact, this happens in every repeat, which is why putting markers between all repeats isn't suggested; it'll drive you crazy!) 
After one pattern repeat, change to size US7 or Denise size 7 (4.5mm) needles. After the second pattern repeat, change to size US6 (4.0mm) or Denise size 6 (4.2mm) needles. After the third pattern repeat, change to size US5 or Denise size 5 (3.75mm) or 3.5mm needles for the remainder of the work. Work a fourth pattern repeat, plus a fifth partial repeat through round 6 (a plain round. Next round: P. Next round: *K3, sl1 knitwise, k2tog, psso, k4*. Next round: P. Next round: K. BO in purl. Weave in ends. Wash gently. Lay flat to dry, straightening pattern; no need to hard block. |